Each day is different for a personal injury attorney. However, there are plenty of tasks that must be done each day to keep everything organized, and moving forward. Although each attorney may do a variation of the following phases, each one is critical to success.
HERE ARE 5 PHASES OF A PERSONAL INJURY ATTORNEY’S DAY!
PHASE 1: EMAILS AND VOICEMAILS
As with a majority of businesses, checking emails and voicemails is hugely important. We contact clients, doctor’s offices, attorneys, courts, and countless other individuals and businesses each day. Many times we have to leave a voicemail or send an email when we cannot get in touch with whomever we are trying to reach. Following up on missed calls and unread emails is huge!
Some Suggestions:
- Always leave a short but detailed description of why you are calling, and your full name. There are times when your case manager or attorney cannot call you back but can get the ball rolling if you leave an appropriate message.
- When emailing, instead of requesting a call or email back, send all of your information at once, and your case manager will contact you when the task is complete.
- Messages and emails without details will slow down your case and will take up a HUGE percentage of personal injury attorney and case manager time.
- Making the process more efficient helps us, but mainly helps YOU!
PHASE 2: SCHEDULING
Personal injury cases can take unexpected turns. Very little goes the way you expect, and there is always something new to learn or experience in regards to each individual case. Being open-minded and flexible are absolutely required to get the job done. Luckily, there are some things that we are able to schedule! Whether it is responding to voicemails, emails, calls, etc., it is a key step to schedule meetings and other items in the firm calendar.
Client meetings, whether in person or via phone, are a large part of our schedule. The best way to communicate is to schedule a phone or in-person meeting. Without scheduling, it is likely that several things will come up that prevent a meeting from happening. Our attorneys are working very hard to obtain and evaluate the information for many different clients. They want to speak to you about your case, and setting up that meeting ensures that you will get the chance!
PHASE 3: CLIENT MEETINGS AND PHONE CALLS
As previously mentioned, we put a lot of our time into speaking with our clients. There are a lot of questions that we need to have answered and a lot of questions from clients that we like to answer! Keeping our clients informed is one of the best ways to have a successful case.
Having an attorney speak one on one with a client is grossly more valuable than having clients email or fill out a form. There are many nuances to accident cases, and meeting one on one makes learning those nuances much easier.
During business hours, one of our attorneys will have several meetings, whether they are in-person, or via phone. Incoming calls will go directly to the case managers but scheduled or emergency/urgent calls will be transferred to the attorney directly. While our attorneys do spend a lot of time on meetings, they have a LOT of other very important tasks to do to build cases. The meetings are certainly a part of that process!
PHASE 4: CASE STUDY AND RESEARCH
So between meetings, phone calls, and other regular daily tasks, our attorneys are focused on their cases (of course!). Sometimes the smallest of details are the most important, so we not only have our legal assistants combing through the files but our attorneys as well.
By the time a case is completely closed, it has probably been reviewed hundreds of times. To get the most financial compensation, finding every detail about the accident, injuries, treatments, and possible future costs take the cake.
Research is a more complex matter and requires a lot more time and patience. For example, going to the site of a slip and fall accident to take photos, requesting and reviewing video surveillance footage, searching online to see if driving conditions were changed due to other factors such as weather, construction, or other variables. Some cases do not require such deep investigation, while others are ambiguous and do require extra effort.
PHASE 5: STRATEGY AND LEGAL FILING
Legal filings can also be strategic but are mostly mandatory steps of every case that goes into the court system. When one side requests something, they have to produce and submit a legal document for any requests to the court, which acts as a medium for all parties involved to request information from each other. It also ensures that all of the communication and case activities align with how the US has determined a legal matter should be handled.
Finally, once a file is complete, we can strategize and proceed with legal filings. Most of our cases settle before they reach the courtroom, but many times we still have to file several court documents during that time. Using previous cases, current, new, and changing laws, evidence, personal details, and more are all a part of case strategy. Learning that our client has been driving for 40 years and has never gotten a ticket is a good example of a simple personal detail about our client demonstrating that they are a safe driver. It also demonstrates that this accident was almost certainly not due to their negligence, but the defendants.
As you can see, there are a lot of different things that your attorney’s office is working on. It is our passion to fairly compensate those who have been injured due to the negligence of others. It is that passion that gives everyone at our office the drive to diligently build, review and produce strategies for each and every case.
